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US 10,648,909 B2Granted
Methods and systems for assessing flow cell cleanliness
AssigneeAbbott Laboratories
InventorsSvitlana Y. Berezhna, JrHung T. Tsai, David Spalding, Mahesh R. Junnarkar, Chia-Fa Hsu
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Abstract
Provided are methods of assessing the cleanliness of a flow cell of a flow cytometric system. The provided methods include computing a ratio of post-flow cell and pre-flow cell light beam intensities and using such a ratio to assess the cleanliness of the flow cell. Flow cytometric systems capable of monitoring the cleanliness of a flow cell contained within the system are also provided.
Claims26
A method of assessing the cleanliness in a flow cell of a flow cytometer, the method comprising:
- a) flowing a cell-free medium through the flow cell of the flow cytometer, wherein the cell-free medium is substantially free of any light scattering particles as well as free of any light absorbing particles;
- b) emitting a light beam from an emitter towards the flow cell and, before the light beam enters the flow cell, measuring the intensity of the light beam with a pre-flow cell detector to obtain a pre-flow cell light intensity,
- c) permitting the light beam emitted from the emitter to pass through the flow cell containing the cell-free medium;
- d) measuring the intensity of the light beam after the light beam has passed through the flow cell by a post-flow cell detector to obtain a post-flow cell light beam intensity;
- e) calculating a ratio of the pre- and post-flow cell light beam intensities;
- and
- f) comparing the calculated ratio of the pre- and post-flow cell light beam intensities to a reference ratio;
- and
- g) determining the flow cell to be clean when the calculated ratio matches the reference ratio and determining the flow-cell to be contaminated when the calculated ratio does not match the reference ratio.
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